With less than half a month left before the military departure, Yusto, as one of the main generals, had to return to deploy military plans. The next morning, he processed the suspension procedures and specifically instructed Lu Yuan, who was far away in the academy, not to wander around.
“If you suddenly disappear, His Majesty will definitely take notice. I’ll figure out a way to bring you in the day before the army departs. For the next few days, you don’t have to be so diligent in attending classes. Pretend to be sick and take leave. Attend class every few days, so that after leaving the academy, they won’t notice too quickly.”
Upon hearing Yusto’s suggestion to feign illness and skip classes, Lu Yuan, showing rare hesitation, said, “Is it not a bit inappropriate to skip classes?”
He was the class monitor.
Yusto responded with a cool tone, “Indeed, it’s not ideal. That’s why I suggest you stay at the academy, focus on your studies, and there’s no need to accompany us into the dense forest.”
Lu Yuan thought to himself, “That won’t work.”
“You promised to take me along last night, and you even swore to the Zerg God,” he reminded, determined.
Yusto, with visible frustration, retorted, “You were the one pestering me about it.”
Lu Yuan paid no attention to that, stating firmly, “In any case, you’re not allowed to back out.”
Yusto turned his head, avoiding eye contact, and said, “I’m not a liar. Of course, I won’t back out.”
After he finished speaking and was about to leave, Yusto reached the doorway but suddenly remembered that he might not see Lu Yuan for the next half month. He paused, hesitated, and turned back to look at Lu Yuan. “I’m leaving,” he said.
Lu Yuan responded with a simple “Hmm, go ahead. Take care on the way.”
Yusto, not getting the reaction he wanted, felt a bit dissatisfied. He frowned and said, “I’m really leaving.”
Lu Yuan, well aware of his intentions, temporarily set aside what he was doing. He got up from the sofa, walked over, and casually ruffled Yusto’s hair. “Alright, let’s go. I’ll see you off.”
Yusto turned his head, averting his gaze. “It’s too conspicuous. We might be noticed.”
Though it was daytime and most students were attending classes, the dormitory building was nearly empty of people. However, unexpected situations couldn’t be ruled out. Yusto coming out of Lu Yuan’s room might raise some eyebrows.
Lu Yuan, however, replied nonchalantly, “Let them notice if they do. It doesn’t matter.”
They were bound to get married sooner or later, and with the imminent mission into the dense forest, the uncertainty of returning alive made all the formalities seem trivial. Who would care about such intricacies?
Lu Yuan, after speaking, directly accompanied Yusto downstairs to the dormitory. Before parting, he didn’t forget to remind him, “Remember to come back for me.”
“Abandoning one’s spouse and child” was an immoral act.
Yusto, with a hint of amusement, asked in return, “What if I don’t come to pick you up?”
Lu Yuan, undeterred, looked at him with a wry smile, “Try it, and you’ll find out.”
Upon hearing Lu Yuan’s words, Yusto hesitated for a moment. Of course, he wouldn’t dare to try. What if Lu Yuan, in a fit of passion, actually went for a blind date? Muttering to himself, he said, “Got it. I’ll come to pick you up in a few days.”
With a tight schedule ahead, Yusto didn’t linger at the academy and soon departed. Lu Yuan watched his figure gradually disappear from sight before turning and heading upstairs, back to the dormitory.
The two of them had caused quite a ruckus in the dormitory the previous night, leaving things in a bit of disarray. However, Yusto had taken the initiative in the morning while Lu Yuan was still asleep to tidy up the room. It looked relatively neat now.
Lu Yuan had a peculiar habit – once the room became tidy, he couldn’t find what he was looking for. He rummaged through the storage cabinet and wardrobe, finally locating the travel bag he had brought with him when he crossed over.
The travel bag was black, now covered in a layer of dirty mud from their adventures in the dense forest. Lu Yuan hadn’t bothered to clean it much. Sitting alone on the sofa, he exerted some force to open the broken zipper. Inside, he found only a yellow sun hat and a lighter.
Lu Yuan took out the lighter and attempted to press it. A burst of orange flames flickered to life, but it quickly extinguished.
It had gotten damp and was unusable.
Lu Yuan couldn’t bring himself to throw away the lighter. He found a drawer and tossed it in, then shifted his gaze to the sun hat in his hand. The hat, perhaps stained with dust, appeared less vibrant than its original pale yellow. The words on it, however, were still clearly visible —
“Little Yellow Duck Tour Group.”
Seeing this, Lu Yuan sneered coldly. He crumpled the hat in his hand as if trying to reshape it.
To hell with the duck tour!
Lu Yuan regretted his decision to join such a trashy tour. The name sounded so unprofessional — “Little Yellow Duck Tour Group”. It seemed like a scam! The promises of luxurious accommodations, primitive ruins, and the exploration of lost civilizations were all deceptive. It cost him over five thousand bucks to sign up!
May the Zerg God bless him; Lu Yuan fervently hoped that the damned tour guide was still alive. If there was a chance to meet him in the future, Lu Yuan was determined to give him a piece of his mind, or perhaps something more physical!
Fuming with anger, Lu Yuan threw the hat on the ground and stomped on it vigorously, venting his frustration. Initially, he thought about tossing it into the trash can to be done with it, but after picking it up, he couldn’t bring himself to discard it. After a brief moment of hesitation and a pat to remove some of the dust, he locked it in the drawer with the lighter.
Well, at least he found a target for his frustration in the Zerg Race.
In the following weeks, Lu Yuan strictly followed Yusto’s advice at the academy, attending classes three days a week and taking sick leave for the remaining two. He pretended to have a severe cold, and as a result, his professors sighed and lamented every day. The stress even caused some of them to lose a significant amount of hair.
With Lu Yuan no longer keeping the troublesome students in check, the class descended into chaos. Assignments that used to be submitted daily were now barely half completed. Frustrated professors tried to encourage Lu Yuan to return to class earlier and even made several visits to his dorm. However, Lu Yuan always portrayed himself as suffering from a severe cold, sneezing incessantly.
A cold might not be a significant issue for military females, but for males, it could be a bit more serious. The professors, seeing Lu Yuan’s condition, advised him to rest well in his dormitory. They even granted him two weeks of leave, allowing him to return to classes once he had fully recovered.
Little did they know that while Lu Yuan skipped theoretical classes, he continued his daily training in hand-to-hand combat and marksmanship. Watching Lu Yuan practice shooting in the shooting range, Instructor Horik squinted for a while. He couldn’t see any signs of illness in Lu Yuan and furrowed his brow, asking, “You rascal, are you pretending to be sick and skipping class on purpose?!”
As the class instructor for Class Three, Instructor Horik had noticed Lu Yuan’s frequent absences. The attendance records clearly indicated that he had missed a significant portion of the main courses.
Lu Yuan, finishing his last shot with ear protection still on, finally took off his earmuffs and asked, “What did you say?”
He hadn’t heard clearly as he had been wearing noise-canceling headphones.
Instructor Horik, infuriated by Lu Yuan’s response, erupted in anger. He exclaimed, “What did I say?! I said you better be a good boy and go to class tomorrow, or I’ll have the other teachers fail you in their subjects directly! I don’t care how long the professors approved your leave. Hand-to-hand combat and marksmanship aren’t courses meant for males, you rascal! Don’t mix up priorities!”
Expecting Lu Yuan to argue back as usual, given his typically defiant nature, Instructor Horik was surprised to find Lu Yuan unusually agreeable today. Lu Yuan put down his gun and said, “Got it. I’ll go back to class in a couple of days once my cold is better.”
Instructor Horik furrowed his brow, “If you have a cold, you should be lying in your dormitory, not purposefully coming to attend elective courses!”
Lu Yuan had already wreaked havoc in hand-to-hand combat class, and now he was adding his touch to marksmanship, leaving the female students in a daze. Who could concentrate on the class with all this commotion?
Having grown accustomed to Instructor Horik’s bullying, Lu Yuan was unfazed by his outburst. Besides, Yusto was coming to pick him up for military duty tonight, and he wouldn’t be at the academy tomorrow. Could Instructor Horik really force him to attend class? “Yes, instructor. I’ll go back to my dormitory and rest now.”
Lu Yuan, after giving a military salute to Instructor Horik, ignored the lingering gazes of the female students and left the classroom directly.
Instructor Horik, observing this, snorted, thinking it was about time. Why would a male zerg suddenly come to practice shooting? He casually picked up binoculars to inspect the target Lu Yuan had just shot. Expecting to see a mess, he was astonished to find that every bullet hole was within the bullseye.
How long had Lu Yuan been attending marksmanship class? He couldn’t even handle a gun before, and now, in less than a month, he had reached such a level of proficiency?!
Instructor Horik, with a perplexed expression, slowly lowered the binoculars, thinking it was truly unbelievable. Could the Zerg God have made a mistake in assigning Lu Yuan’s gender? His shooting skills were comparable to, if not better than, the females!
Lu Yuan, unaware of Instructor Horik’s astonishment over his marksmanship, returned to his dormitory to pack his belongings. When he opened the door, he was surprised to find Yusto already inside, waiting for him. He blinked in confusion, “Didn’t you say you’d come in the early morning? Why are you here now?”
Yusto, who had been sitting on the sofa, stood up when he saw Lu Yuan returning. He explained, “General Saphir unexpectedly changed the departure time. The troops will be leaving in six hours.”
Yusto brought a set of training uniforms for Lu Yuan and some spray-like bottles. He casually picked up one of the bottles and shook it, saying to Lu Yuan, “Take a seat. I’ll help you change your hair color.”
Lu Yuan’s eyelids twitched. “How are you planning to change it?”
Yusto replied, “With hair dye, of course. It should last for about half a month.”
Lu Yuan asked cautiously, “What color?”
Please, let it not be green.
Yusto didn’t say anything in response to Lu Yuan’s comment. He pulled Lu Yuan to a chair and, teasingly, said, “You’ll find out in a moment.”
Lu Yuan felt a bit uneasy without knowing the color, but he reasoned that it would only last for half a month, so it couldn’t be that bad. During his days as a young man in society, he had dyed his hair all sorts of colors—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. There wasn’t much that could look worse than what he had already tried.
However, seeing Yusto messing around with his hair, Lu Yuan couldn’t help but try to salvage the situation, “Um… I have half a bottle of red hair dye in the bathroom. How about using that?”
Yusto declined, “That kind of dye washes off when it comes into contact with water. It would reveal your original hair color.”
Besides, for this mission, Faeus would be accompanying them, and there was no way Yusto would allow Lu Yuan to have the same hair color as Faeus.
Lu Yuan had no choice but to give up and let Yusto do as he pleased with his hair.
Yusto’s hair spray was semi-transparent, and Lu Yuan couldn’t determine the color as it bubbled up after a short while. It wasn’t until a few hours later when Yusto rinsed it off with a showerhead that Lu Yuan realized his hair had turned silver, just like Yusto’s. However, it wasn’t as pure, and faint strands of his original black hair were still visible, as if intentionally highlighted.
Lu Yuan was momentarily stunned, instinctively looking at Yusto. “Why is it the same color as yours?”
Yusto used a towel to carefully dry Lu Yuan’s hair, smirking slightly. “What’s wrong? Don’t you like it?”
Yusto’s well-defined fingers gently smoothed out Lu Yuan’s unruly hair. As he looked at Lu Yuan with the same hair color, a hint of satisfaction flashed in his eyes. Unable to resist, he leaned in and gave Lu Yuan a kiss, saying with an ambiguous tone, “Now everyone will know we belong together.”
Lu Yuan questioned with a raised eyebrow, “Are you serious?”
Yusto chuckled at Lu Yuan’s question. “Well, my previous adjutant was my fellow clan brother, and his hair color is similar to mine. For this mission, I had him stay in the capital. You can disguise yourself as him. With the goggles and helmet on, no zerg will notice.”
Lu Yuan asked instinctively, “What about my eyes?”
Do the zergs have something like contact lenses?
However, Yusto quickly answered Lu Yuan’s question with practical action. Except for a lack of vegetation, the zergs had everything else. He took out a semi-transparent box from the pocket of his military uniform, containing two light red thin objects soaking inside—the contact lenses.
“With these, your eyes won’t give you away.”
Yusto finished his statement and gently helped Lu Yuan put them on. Lu Yuan’s pure black eyes transformed into a dark red color. At a glance, one wouldn’t notice anything unusual.
Lu Yuan unconsciously blinked a few times and took a moment to adjust. “How does it look? Can you tell?”
In response, Yusto’s warm lips suddenly pressed against Lu Yuan’s eyes, and then he whispered, “Once you change into the training uniform, it should be completely undetectable.”
Lu Yuan playfully pinched Yusto’s face, thinking that Yusto seemed unusually affectionate today. “Wait here; I’ll go change.”
But Yusto insisted, “Let me help you change.”
Lu Yuan was taken aback. “Are you sure?”
Yusto remained silent and lifted his hand to unbutton Lu Yuan’s shirt one by one. After more than half a month apart, he couldn’t resist the urge to get closer to Lu Yuan. The faint scent of pheromones filled the air around them, and Yusto’s red eyes deepened for a moment.
Yusto’s Adam’s apple moved up and down, a hint of a smile flashing in his eyes. His voice inexplicably became husky, “Yes, I’m sure…”
Lu Yuan could only let him help change his clothes. However, somehow, as they were changing, they ended up embracing each other. Embracing each other led to kissing, their lips and tongues pressed together without a breath of air between them. The passionate exchange made it seem as if they wanted to devour each other.
Yusto tilted his head to reciprocate the kiss, his fingertips gently threading through Lu Yuan’s silver strands, expressing an undeniable affection. In a murmured voice, he said, “Now, we’re the same…”
Lu Yuan thought they were not the same at all. He lightly tapped Yusto’s robust abdomen through their clothes, hinting at the location of the zerg’s reproductive organ. “Yusto, I think we’re still different.”
Yusto emitted a muffled groan and subtly moved away from Lu Yuan’s hand. “I know.”
The troops were about to depart, and there was little time for anything more. After their brief moment, Yusto dismissed any lingering thoughts, helped Lu Yuan change into the training uniform, and then applied camouflage paint to his face. After confirming that Lu Yuan was unrecognizable, Yusto nodded, “All set, let’s go.”
Lu Yuan, with his slender figure, dressed in the training uniform and black military boots, looked almost identical to a female zerg at first glance. Unless someone was particularly familiar with him, they wouldn’t be able to recognize him.
Lu Yuan put on his military cap and glanced at himself in the mirror, almost unable to recognize his own reflection. After tidying up their dormitory briefly, he and Yusto left the academy under the cover of the night, heading directly to the location where the military was assembling by taking a flying vehicle.
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![The Rebirth of the Last Days and Return to [Fang] Hao](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/image_2021-09-11_143139.png "The Rebirth of the Last Days and Return to [Fang] Hao")
